Pilot News Staff Writer
CULVER — First Farmer’s Bank and Trust Culver branch manager Chad Van Herk, a Plymouth High School graduate, was out of the office for several days a few months back for your typical American vacation, in many ways: time away with his wife, relaxing on the beach and soaking up some California sun....oh, and filming a music video. And as it turns out, a bit of an unusual music video, accompanying his song, “Footprints.”
Those expecting to see little more than “eye candy” images of sun and surf, bikini-clad women, and perhaps guitar-playing, singing and songwriting Van Herk himself cavorting around the beach may want to give the video a look, online at chadvanherk.com.
Ok, so there’s a bit of beach cavorting — Van Herk did fly to the Los Angeles area, after all, and he’s never made any secret of the role of water and sand, sails and land, and his own restless wanderings, as threads often running through his music. But he credits California documentarian and director Ken Woodall with the vision and plotline for the final video. In fact, Woodall came to Van Herk, who initially was a bit incredulous when contacted about the project.
In the video, an “elderly” version of Van Herk whiles away his life in an institution, dutifully swallowing pills dispensed to himself and other residents in what is clearly a colorless, rather empty existence.
Woodall is a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Film Production whose credits include documentaries on AIDS in South Africa and deforestation in Costa Rica, besides a lengthy resume of television and short film credits. He explains:
“I have been a huge fan of folk, soft rock, reggae, Hawaiian style music for a long time. One day I heard this brand new song on Pandora (internet radio) and all of these images started forming in my head...warm sand with wet footprints being washed away, a man whistling on the beach, an angel appearing in front of him. It was the best melody I have ever heard.
“It hit me: This (singer) was much older than an innocent, 20-something body. He understands the true potential joy of life because he’s lived through it all. This beach is a dream world, an escape from the rigid reality.
“(In the video), older Chad is a man whose life sped him by... the power in his legs have been stripped away either through idleness or through an old accident (and) no one cared about him any more...(he) had been stripped from power, connection, reality.
“One day a painting appears at his door and he sees color for the first time in decades. It is so shocking that he is able to transport himself to this dream land. (But) reality and dream blend together and Chad is able to bring back some of the elements of that new life back with him.”
In the video, the “older” Van Herk finds himself a young man again, on the beach. As the video progresses, the character realizes “that there is a future,” adds Woodall. “That’s when he is able to transcend his physical and emotional ailments.”
Chad Van Herk, of course, had been oblivious to the impact his song was having on Woodall, multiple states away.
“I get this email one day last year, late summer, from Ken and he mentions he heard my song ‘Footprints’ on Pandora Internet Radio,” recalls Van Herk. “He claimed to have had a vision of sorts for a music video and he explains his status as a graduating film student at USC. He asks whether I mind if he makes a music video as his personal project....I immediately granted him permission.
“‘No,’ he replies the next day.’I mean, I want to make a music video with you here in L.A.’
“I kind of shrugged it off, honestly, thinking, ‘Yeah right,’ and I took everything with a grain of salt. When he forwarded me a rough draft script, however, I started thinking to myself, ‘This guy’s serious!’ Then came the animated storyboard, which I was able to watch on YouTube, which basically walked through each scene as he saw it being played out...I started getting excited.”
A year later Van Herk and wife Elizabeth were on a Virgin Air flight to Los Angeles, where they shot the video in high definition over July 23 through 26 in Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, and Costa Mesa, with a crew of volunteers from various Southern California schools. Collaborators included Entourage and CSI, and CGI work was handled in England.
“I showed up on set with trepidation,” admits Van Herk. “Would this be a rag-tag group of inexperienced college kids reluctantly forfeiting their weekend to half-heartedly move to a director’s chest-beating drum? My anxiety evaporated almost immediately. What I experienced as I walked into the room was a fluid motion of directors, producers and crew flowing in unison toward one goal, one well-planned take at a time.”
The video has been well-received on the internet through social networking sites as well as Youtube and Van Herk’s own webpage. The singer himself, while “very happy with the experience,” doesn’t know where the video will take him professionally.
“If it leads to something greater, I’ll greet the opportunity with a warm smile,” he says. “If asked whether I hope for more, or that it leads to a ‘greater’ experience, well, I tend to believe that it is human nature to progress and succeed at that in which one takes the greatest amount of pleasure in doing. Nothing thrills me more than picking up a guitar, writing songs, and putting them ‘out there’ to be heard. I don’t really seek fame, and I am not driven by monetary success. Success is achieved, not earned.
“I guess I simply hope to achieve satisfaction in living and not ‘when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived,’ he adds, quoting Henry David Thoreau.
Pulling out a ukulele, Van Herk — who had also discussed his life journeys in college, sailing, and songwriting — explained “banking is what I do,” recently to the Culver Kiwanis Club. “It’s not who I am,” he said as he discussed lunch breaks towing a kayak behind him swimming in Lake Maxinkuckee, and riding his bicycle to and from work.
Van Herk, who said he records his self-penned music with a laptop computer and “a pretty decent condenser mic,” serenaded club members with “Footprints” (the ukulele version) and added with a smile, “Mortgage rates are at a new low in the last few years...I’m your man (for banking) during the day!”
Readers can pick up Van Herk’s CDs through the Internet or at Culver Coffee Company, and of course check out the music video for the song Ken Woodall says contains “a deep subtext dressed in such simple melody that it is a profoundly moving piece of art, like a mother covering her child with a blanket during war. It’s reminiscent and optimistic especially in a time where the present seems pretty dim. Everyone has a ‘mother-of-pearl’ that they are searching for.
“‘Leavin’ Footprints’ reminds me of that innocent optimism we all have had,” Woodall adds. “I hope the audience reclaims those emotions and becomes reinvigorated to keep pushing for their goals whatever they may be. It’s never too late to pursue your dreams.”
Reprinted by permission of the Pilot News
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